


To force them apart

by AyeAyeAye



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: BAMF Doctor (Doctor Who), BAMF River Song, Dark Doctor (Doctor Who), F/M, Melody Pond's Childhood, Protective Doctor (Doctor Who), Protective River Song, River Song Being River Song, and a bit psychopathy, but it’s definitely there, im emphasising the DARK in dark doctor, river and the doctor get separated and nothing will keep them apart, river is still early in the time stream, the violence isn’t described too much, they’re both so dangerous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:49:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28447956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AyeAyeAye/pseuds/AyeAyeAye
Summary: They’d taken River from him, and he was going to find her. She was coming to find him, too.OR:We’ve seen flashes of how dark the doctor can be. This is that - and River doesn’t stop him.
Relationships: Eleventh Doctor/River Song, The Doctor/River Song
Comments: 12
Kudos: 57





	To force them apart

**Author's Note:**

> Jus to clear up the timelines: this isn’t exactly posted in a specific time, just know that the Doctor has married River, but River hasn’t married him yet.  
> Also, River is still in early days of not being melody so she gets a bit shooty-stabby. Spoilers.

The Doctor had been around long enough in this body now to recognise the bitter fury spreading through him. Despite it, he was still.

“There’s nothing here,” one of his interrogators insisted. “He knows nothing.”

“Come closer,” the Doctor said, “and I’ll tell you a few choice secrets.”

They almost ignored him. 

“It’s been two hours, and you still haven’t broken his psychic shielding.” 

He smiled. 

“If he’s who he claims he is, there’s reason for that,” the woman responded, still sending oily tendrils to brush against his mind. They made him shiver, but he forced himself not to move.

There, a perfectly constructed opening for the woman, a gap so small it seemed a mistake. 

She took a half step forwards when she found it, satisfaction rippling across her features, and the doctor  _pulled._

There was chaos in the seconds that followed. He slipped a hand easily from his restraint, slammed his mental barriers down so she couldn’t move, and grabbed her against him. 

He forced the movement to a halt with a short blade pressed to her neck.

“Doctor,” the first interrogator finally acknowledged, a hand careful in the air between them. “Doctor, we get it. No more probing.”

He let out a bitter laugh. 

“You think this is about that? No.”

“Then she’s done nothing. Let her go. Your records show you’re a merciful man.”

“Usually, yes,” he said, leaning forward in his seat. “But you took someone precious from me, and I won’t stand for that.”

“Put down the knife and then we’ll talk.”

It was the type of thing he was used to saying, the type of negotiation he was supposed to make. 

They really shouldn’t have separated him and River. She’d warned him, long ago at Demon’s Run, that he could not let his rage run his wars. 

But they’d taken his wife, and he’d been a warrior once. What else were they expecting?

There was nothing they could do anymore, except stay out of his way until he got her back. 

“No,” he replied, and stood, marching backwards with the woman. 

“You wanted me to tell you something,” he whispered to her, and she nodded despite the blade. “Well then. Hear me now: you’re very, very lucky you’re not the one trying to stop River from finding me.”

He shoved hard, slammed the door between them, and deadlocked it with a flick of his sonic. 

He was coming to find her. 

**

Despite their biology, it had always been this way, with him humanising her. 

But the Doctor wasn’t here.

She’d woken in restraints, a few people sitting across from her and sending tentative mental feelers towards her. 

Now, leant back as far as the chair could go without toppling over, she let her eyes roam the room. 

She could feel them working into her mind, but she was mostly helpless to stop it. Damn it, the Doctor had assumed she knew, like she imagined she did in the future. Perhaps this was the event, then, that made him teach her. 

There was one part of her mind that was locked tighter than others, she knew, courtesy of the Doctor himself. That was what they’d speared for, ignoring completely her memories of his future. 

Oh, they weren’t so clever, then, or maybe just misinformed. In any case, mental extraction wasn’t their forte. 

The door in her mind began to creak open, and she felt their intrigue. 

“You really, really shouldn’t have done that,” she whispered, as years of training slammed into her at full force. 

Four people in the room, one exit. Restraints - she dealt with them then, pulling hard. She’d forced herself out of a spacesuit, once. This was nothing. 

They began shouting, warnings and worry blending in their words, and she didn’t bother to listen, just strode for the door.

One hand on the handle, and she remembered. 

“Oh,” she breathed, and even with the thrum of her training in her head, she gave them a smirk. “Where’s my blaster?”

When the familiar weight was at her hip, she left. 

She didn’t have time to deal with them, especially when they weren’t even trying to stop her. 

She memorised turns as she made them, almost by accident, letting most of her training run rampant through her mind as she fought to block the urge to kill her own lover. 

Okay, maybe she should kill some of them, just to release some steam. 

No! That was her psychopathy, that was her instinct. She was River Song, not Mels, and she had moved beyond that. 

A steadying hand pressed to the corridor helped clear her head, a little, so she pressed her entire body against it. 

Her eyes fluttered closed. 

There was the rage, the destruction, the fear, pulsing through her mind.

She pictured him, then. His face half visible under the blankets, their legs tangled together. His body pressed to hers in Berlin, and later, her saving his life. 

Her instincts roared, and she sent the mental image of him running into that room in her head. They surged to follow, and she slammed the door. 

Well. 

That had been something. 

She could still feel most of it, would likely feel it for the next few weeks, but she wasn’t going to strangle him anymore. Or shoot him. Or poison him. Or stab him. Or...

Without the irritating urge to kill the Doctor, she could think a lot more clearly about getting to him. 

Yes, _that_. 

A thread linking their minds told her he was coming her way, too. A mumble in the pathway, and she realised he was hurt, in some way. 

She didn’t hesitate to shoot at anyone after that. 

Her instincts guided her arm to where his left heart would be, but she forced herself to jerk her hand lower, keep her shots non-fatal. 

She was vaguely aware of a few that were too high - femoral arteries destroyed, hands blown _off_ instead of  _through._

She wasn’t very inclined to care. 

**

The central control room of the air base hummed around him. He’d wanted to keep going until he reached her, but they’d have had to come back here anyway. Besides, his legs were still shaky after the electrical pulse they’d tried to use to stop him. 

There was one man in there with him, a man with a twitching moustache that would’ve made the doctor laugh, a hundred years ago. 

Or maybe even a few hours ago, before they’d separated him and River. He glanced away. 

Patience was a virtue. 

He certainly wasn’t feeling virtuous in that moment, in more ways than just that. 

“You won’t get away with this,” the man said. 

“I already have.” It was a lighter tone than he’d expected to come out of his mouth, younger. Satisfied.

“After you run, we’ll never stop trying to find you.”

If the man had wanted his attention, he’d certainly gotten it now.

“You’re an arms dealer. A weapon’s creator. You’ve developed technology for Daleks, Cybermen, Hydroflax. You’ve burnt cities to get what you wanted.” The Doctor slipped from his stool, crouched in front of him. “Do you know what that means?”

“That you should be afraid.”

“No,” the Doctor bit out. “No, it means that this will be the easiest trigger I’ve ever pulled.”

The man paled, and the Doctor returned to his spot, tapping idle fingers against his arm as he waited. 

The door burst open. 

“Hello, Sweetie,” River said before he could. 

“My bad, bad girl,” he returned. “How many of them did you kill on your way to me?”

“Oh, my love, you humanise me - I tried my best to incapacitate.”

“Apparently, you demonise me,” he replied, eyes flicking to the man still curled in the corner. 

River’s gaze followed his. He reached for her and she came into his arms. 

“Are you okay?” His words were softer now, in a tone he reserved purely for her. 

“Yes. I felt it, though, you’re not.”

“You know how I love to play with electricity.”

She gave him a delighted grin, and he realised that some part of her training had emerged to the surface.

“You’re not going to try and kill me, are you?” 

She laughed. “No, but I might kill them.”

He grinned in response, and River pulled him down for a brief kiss. It sent a thrill through him, and he tugged a hand in her hair. Resolve coursed through his veins - this is what he’d come so close to losing. 

“You know,” he said, directed at River but loud enough for the man to hear, “I don’t think I’ll stop you.”

Her eyes flashed, and she handed him a blaster. 

“It’s not my favourite, my love, but it’ll certainly do you just fine.”

She was right; the weight was familiar.

“This is a massacre,” the man gasped out, and a hint of a dangerous smile crossed the Doctor’s face. 

“This is a love story,” he corrected. “You’re just on the wrong side of it.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked it, show some love with kudos or maybe a comment. If you hated it you can also comment. Actually, i just wanna hear what y’all think.


End file.
